PhD Degree Programme in Coastal Technology Management

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) Degree Programme in Coastal Technology Management

Today’s society is besieged with numerous Coastal Technological challenges that pose risk to health, life and property The Center for Geotechnical and Coastal Engineering Research, (CGCER), University of Port Harcourt proposes to run the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Coastal Technology Management. The recent and up-surging interest in shore protection activities has made Coastal challenges a front burner issue. Therefore, there is need to train manpower that can rise up to these challenges with solutions that can address the problems. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Coastal management Technology  has been designed to provide practicing engineers, Academics and Researchers with the advanced Coastal engineering knowledge and skills required to solve these problems.

The Center for Geotechnical and Coastal Engineering Research has been running a Masters degree in Coastal Technology Management for the past two years.

The Philosophy of the PhD Programme is anchored on the drive of initiating, encouraging, promoting and sustaining advanced applied research and development in the various aspects of coastal engineering in order to equip the graduates with advanced knowledge and skill set in coastal engineering so that they can proffer solutions to real coastal issues.

To turn in internationally recognized Graduates whose Professionalism would be of immense benefit in tackling the problems associated with coastal issues. In addition, the PhD Programme also has the vision of preparing interested Graduates for academic positions and research assignments.

To create, preserve and apply knowledge obtained through Applied Research to the service of humanity through comprehensive Research and Development in Coastal Technology Management.

Aim

The main aim of the PhD programme in Geotechnical and Coastal Engineering is to prepare students for professional work in the respective Research areas and also to produce a hands-on, Industry-ready Geotechnical Engineers and Coastal Engineers with a wide-range of Job Opportunities in Marine & Coastal Environment, Shore Protection, Artificial Intelligence, Dams, Port & Harbour, Geotechnical Services, Ocean Survey, Construction, Consultancy, and Coastal Infrastructure Research & Development.

Objectives

To achieve the aim of the Doctor in Philosophy Programme in Geotechnical and Coastal Engineering, the following under listed objectives will be pursued:

  1. Sourcing of highly qualified resource persons from both the academic and industrial worlds to deliver knowledge filled and experienced based lectures.
  2. Organization of conferences, seminars and workshops in the relevant areas of interest.
  3. Providing Internship opportunities for interested students in recognized industries.

Flood, Erosion and Ocean encroac

Flood, Erosion and Ocean encroachment around Coastlines have made infrastructural development in such environment highly challenging, hence man is forced to think of ways of living with the Coastal environment. Exploring challenging Soils, Marine and Coastal environment therefore becomes inevitable, for both Geotechnical research and Infrastructural development.

Addressing challenges in shore protection, Coastal vunerability and adaptability are some of the very key reasons for the PhD programme in Geotechnical and Coastal Engineering. Furthermore, exploitation and processing activities derived from Security threats and militancy in the host Onshore communities has forced International Oil and Gas companies (IOCs) to extend the frontiers of their activities Offshore, into the deep water region. Hence the need for advanced research activities into the Coastal environment.

hment around Coastal civilizations have made infrastructural development in that domain highly challenging, hence man is forced to thinker ways of living with the Sea environment. Exploring challenging Soils, Marine and Coastal environment therefore becomes inevitable, both for Geotechnical research and Infrastructural development.
Besides, the harsh Onshore Oil and Gas exploration, exploitation and processing activities deriving from Security threats and militancy in the host Onshore communities has forced International Oil and Gas companies (IOCs) to extend the frontiers of their activities Offshore, into the deepwaters region. This further necessitates advanced research activities into the Coastal environment.

The main aim of the programmes of the Center is to produce a hands-on, Industry-ready Geotechnical Engineers and Coastal Engineers with a wide-range of Job Opportunities in Marine & Coastal Environment, Shore Protection, Artificial Intelligence, Dams, Port & Harbour, Geotechnical Services, Ocean Survey, Construction, Consultancy, Coastal Infrastructure Research & Development.

All lectures for every Programme shall be administered / delivered on modular basis from 08.00am to 04.00pm (with One Hour (12.00 - 01.00) break) from Mondays to Fridays. That is, 40 hours lecture per week per Course which is approximately equal to 14 weeks Semester of Academic work for a 3 Credit Units (2-hours lecture plus l hour Practical or Tutorial per week) Course. Examination for a Course is taken after the Lectures on Saturdays, while the Continuous Assessment is done within the lecture periods as Practical reports, Test, Group Discussions, Field Trips reports and Assignments.

To qualify for sitting for a Final Examination in a Course student is expected to have 75% lectures attendance of ALL lectures in that Course. The overall Examination score in a Course shall be 100% which shall be comprised of:
Examination - 70%
Continuous Assessment - 30%
Every student is expected to score a minimum of 50% in the overall evaluation for a Course in order to PASS, otherwise, he or she shall be deemed to have failed the Course. In which case, the student is allowed a second final chance to retake a Supplementary Examination in the Course which cannot be scored above a C-Grade. The Examination Grading shall be:

  1. The full-time candidates will be required to spend a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 5 years.
  2. The part-time candidates will be required to spend a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 7 years.

Candidates for admission into the Ph.D programme must possess the Master of Engineering or Master of Science degree in any related Engineering or Physical Science discipline from the University of Port Harcourt or any other recognized University with at least a CGPA of 3.5. In addition, every applicant must provide:

  1. Two letters of reference (at least) from persons qualified to comment on his or her academic work (preferably, the supervisor of the Masters’ programme should be one of the referees;
  2. A copy of his or her Master’s degree transcript;
  3. Four copies of his or her proposed research plan.

Final selection of candidates will be based on the evaluation of the above documents as well as performance at interview.

To achieve the above objectives and qualify for the award of the PhD degree, the student must complete and pass all the prescribed courses in the chosen area of interest, participate in and present seminars and produced a well supervised dissertation on an approved research topic relevant to the interest of the Center.

The course listings consist of Compulsory courses listed below:

 

 Course Listing for Ph.D in Coastal Technology Management

S/No

Module Code

Module Title

Credit Unit

1

CTM 901

Advanced Modelling Techniques in Coastal Technology

3

2

CTM 902

Advanced Coastal Infrastructure

3

3

CTM 903

Advanced Vulnerability and Adaptation Strategy

3

4

CTM 904

Advanced Coastal Measurement and Data Analysis

3

5

CTM 905

Advanced Reliability and Risk Management

3

6

CTM 906

Advanced Programming in Oceanography

3

7

CTM 907

Coastal Hazard Analysis

3

8

CTM 908

Advanced Hydrodynamics for Coastal Engineering

3

9

CTM 909

Advanced Project Management

3

10

CTM 911

Advanced Statistics

3

11

CTM 912

ICT/Big Data Analysis

3

12

CTM 910

Technical Seminar

3

12

CTM 930

Thesis

6

                                          TOTAL

42

CTM 901 - Advanced Modeling Techniques in Coastal Technology (3 Credits).

Review of finite element; Discretization of river and coastal domains. Element numbering technique in coastal environment.  Element assembly and solution of banded matrices, tridiagonal, pentadiagonal etc. 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D elements. Computer/software application to field and idealized problems, input data, interpretation with respect to coastal environment for instance flood prediction, solute transport wave prediction.

 

CTM 902 - Advanced Coastal Infrastructure (3 Credits).

Review of planning and design of critical coastal infrastructure. Advanced design of break waters, jetties, seawalls, groins, piers, submerged pipelines, harbour design and Tsunami defense. Use of laboratory models, numerical simulation and observation for design.

 

CTM 903 - Advanced Vulnerability and Adaptation Strategy (3 Credits).

The nature of the coastal environment. Coastal zones in Nigeria. Coastal resources: the nature and status. Coastal zones classification. Coastal zone management. Vulnerability assessment of coastal zones. Risk associated with Coastal development. Coastal zone adaptation planning. Adaptation strategies in the Coastal environment. Present climate realities and the coastal environment.

 

CTM 904 - Advanced Coastal Management and Data Analysis (3 Credits).

Advanced coastal measurement. Advanced bathymetric survey. Online data archival and retrieval systems. Data analysis: Fourier transform applications to the processing of coastal related types of signal. Digital processing technique. Laboratory work involving analysis of coastal related signals using modern data acquisition systems.

 

CTM 905 - Advanced Reliability and Risk Management (3 Credits).

Review of state of the art computer methods, soft wares on structural reliability modelling; Principles of structural reliability analysis; Destructive and non-destructive examinations; and case studies. Advanced principle in risk management, history of risk management, development and impact of international standard. Review of risk assessment. Review of risk treatment. Review of risk, governance and culture.

 

CTM 906 - Advanced Programming in Oceanography (3 Credits).

Introduction to MATLAB desk environment. Advanced programming and data analysis skills, matrix algebra and vectorization of functions, writing optimized routines to analyze data sets, basic graphics and visualization. Oceanographic characteristics varying in both three dimensions and time. MATLAB processing, analysis and visualization of large oceanographic data sets.

 

CTM 907 - Coastal Hazard Analysis (3 Credits).

Cascade of natural, biological and human induced hazards. Perspective on coastal hazard and disasters. Forecasting and mitigations. Sea level rise causes, impact and scenarios for change. Storm induced morphology changes. Remote sensing of coastal hazard.

 

CTM 908 - Advanced Hydrodynamics for Coastal Engineering (3 Credits).

Periodic wave patterns: the approach of differential calculus, the control volume approach. Waves effect on coasts. Wind generated waves. Advanced wave mechanics. Review of hydrodynamics and vector analysis.

 

CTM 909 – Advanced Project Management (3 Credits).

Project Management overview:  Identify project management processes, professional and social responsibilities, interpersonal skills required for a project management. Project Management Methodology. Project Management Toolset. Project Management Documentation. System Development Life Cycle. Initiating a project: Examine the project management content, examine project selection, prepare a project statement of work, create a project charter, Identify project stakeholders. The Planning Phase: Identify elements of the project management plan, Document stakeholder requirements, create a scope statement, develop a work breakdown structure.

 

CTM 911 - Advanced Statistics (3 credits).

Linear statistical models. General regression theory and industrial applications. Design of orthogonal experiments and industrial applications. Correlation coefficient analysis. Elementary time series analysis. Finite population sampling and survey methods.

CTM 912 – ICT/Big Data Analysis (3 Credits).

Overview of Big Data. Using Big Data in Businesses. Technologies for Handling Big Data. Understanding Hadoop Ecosystem. Dig Deep to understand the fundamental of MapReduce and HBase. Understanding Big Data Technology Foundations. Databases and Data Warehouses. Using Hadoop to store data. Learn to Process Data using Map Reduce. Testing and Debugging Map Reduce Applications. Learn Hadoop YARN Architechture. Exploring Hive. Exploring Pig. Exploring Oozie. Learn NoSQL Data Management. Integrating R and Hadoop and Understanding Hive in Detail.

 

CTM 910 - Technical Seminar (3 Credits).

This is a required course for all graduate students. Intensive review of the literature in the student area of specialization will be required. Series of seminars will be delivered by students in topic of interest.

 

CTM 930 - Thesis (6 Credits).

This is a directed research on problems in the student’s area of specialization. Emphasis will be on the use of research methodology for scientific investigation leading to a written thesis.

 

 

 

 

 

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